Several right-wing personalities, including former FOX News host Tucker Carlson, repeatedly accused plaintiff Ray Epps of secretly being an FBI agent tasked with instigating January 6 protesters to violence.
A federal judge has dismissed a defamation lawsuit filed against FOX News by a man who conspiracy theorists had accused of instigating the January 6 riots.
According to CNN, in the aftermath of the failed attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 general election, conspiracy theorists and conservative trolls attempted to posit the riots as a “false flag” operation instigated by Democrats, the federal government, and the FBI.
Several right-wing personalities, including former FOX News host Tucker Carlson, repeatedly accused plaintiff Ray Epps of secretly being an FBI agent tasked with instigating protesters to violence.
Epps, notes NBC News, was filmed on January 5 telling other protesters that they needed to go into the U.S. Capitol to successfully challenge the results of the 2020 election and re-instate Donald Trump as president. But body-camera footage from the actual riots showed Epps asking Capitol law enforcement officers how, if at all, he could assist them.
Epps later pleaded guilty to charges of disorderly conduct related to the January 6 riot.
In his lawsuit, first filed in 2023, Epps said that FOX spread lies that “reached hundreds of millions of people and caused enormous harm” to his reputation.
“The only time I’ve been involved with the government was when I was a Marine in the United States Marine Corps,” Epps said.
Attorneys for Epps claimed that FOX News’s embrace of conspiracy theories came at a steep cost to Epps and his wife, Robyn Epps.
“Fox and Mr. Carlson made Epps the central figure in a lie they concocted about January 6, 2021. After destroying Epps’s reputation and livelihood, Fox will move on to its next story, while Ray and Robyn live in a 350-square foot RV and face harassment and fear true harm,” the lawsuit alleged. “Fox must be held accountable.”
“Those lies have destroyed Ray’s and Robyn’s lives,” the lawsuit said.
“The consequences to Ray and Robyn have been enormous. They lost their successful wedding venue business, they had to sell their home that they spent years building, and they have endured significant emotional and psychological harm from the attacks,” attorney Michael Teter said in 2023.
But, in a Wednesday decision, Delaware-based U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Hall found that Epps had failed to establish that FOX and other defendants had acted with malice in speculating that Epps could have been a federal agent.
Fox News has since indicated that it is “pleased” with the dismissal.
“Following the dismissals of the Jankowicz, Bobulinski, and now Epps cases, FOX News is pleased with these back-to-back decisions from federal courts preserving the press freedoms of the First Amendment,” a FOX spokesperson said in a statement.
In a round of 2023 filings, attorneys for FOX argued that Epps’ lawsuit was fundamentally unconstitutional.
“This lawsuit attacks core First Amendment protected speech in which Fox opinion hosts asked questions, looked for answers, and provided commentary and opinions on widely reported— and undisputed—facts about Plaintiff’s prominent role in one of the biggest public controversies in political history: the January 6 storming of the Capitol,” FOX attorneys wrote in their filing.
Sources
Judge dismisses Jan. 6 defendant’s defamation lawsuit against Fox News
Judge tosses lawsuit against Fox News over conspiracy-tinged Jan. 6 coverage
Pro-Trump protester Ray Epps files defamation suit against Fox News
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